y&ya ministry session four
DESCRIPTION
Slide presentation for the fourth session of MidAmerica-UUA's online course Youth & Young Adult Ministries. This session was about Late Adolescence & Emerging Adulthood.TRANSCRIPT
Youth & Young Adult MinistriesSession Four
Late Adolescence/Emerging Adulthood & Worship
ADOLESCENT/YOUNG ADULT DEVELOPMENT
Late Adolescence (ages 18-22) Emerging Adulthood (18-26…27…28)
Physical Growth
• Achieves full physical development• Gains more assurance about body image• Engages in sexual activity; more likely to be
partnered• Learns to manage stress and maintain health
Cognitive, Intellectual Development
• Particularly open to learning; a time ripe for formal/informal education
• Expresses ideas with more linguistic skill• May see many points of view and may claim
multiple realities as the truth (relativism)• May claim self as a “producer” of knowledge
(not just a consumer)
Social, Affective Development
• Increases self-reliance• Develops sense of identity and intimacy• Expresses interest in vocational and personal life
choices• Brings to realization sexual identity of self• Makes choices (either explicitly or not) to claim
sexual identity• While relationships with peers are still
important, they do not define the self
Social, Affective Development
• May feel pressures to claim racial/ethnic identity in different spheres
• May reject alliances based solely on race• Negotiates more knowledgably racism as a
system of privilege and oppression• Needs involvement with diverse peers to
continue healthy racial and ethnic identity development
Moral Development
• Wrestles with personal morality and life choices
• Expresses interest in moral and philosophical thinking, for self and wider world
Spiritual, Religious, Faith Development
• Claims authority around issues of faith• Further develops spirituality as an important
part of self• Engages in “faith” beyond traditional
organized religion• Considers the role of faith in identity
Support for Late Adolescent Stage
• Continue providing information about safe sex and contraception
• Provide for self-care including stress management• Respect the privacy and intellect of the young adult• Provide complex problems and thick questions to
ponder• Tie activities to broader concepts or issues (i.e.
philosophical, existential, social activist lenses)
Support for Late Adolescent Stage
• Understand that intimacy and identity development are tied together and respect the young adult’s attention to this aspect of life
• Provide models and conversations about vocations and life choices
• Celebrate and channel the young adult’s moral idealism into action
• Celebrate the process of searching that is part of late adolescence
Youth Ministry in Late Adolescence
• They’re still adolescents!• They need a gentle shove into adulthood.
Youth workers must take careful note—in an age where adulthood is delayed and adolescence is lengthening—to help kids grow into people who know who they are and who take responsibility for their lives.
What Is Emerging Adulthood?
• It is the age of identity explorations, of trying out various possibilities, especially in love and work.
• It is the age of instability.• It is the most self-focused age of life.• It is the age of feeling in-between, in transition,
neither adolescent nor adult.• It is the age of possibilities, when hopes flourish,
when peoplehave an unparalleled opportunity to transform their lives.
Emerging Adulthood Development
• Developing intellectual, social and physical competence.
• Learning to manage emotions.• Moving through autonomy toward
interdependence.• Developing mature interpersonal relationships.
Emerging Adulthood Development
• Establishing identity.• Developing purpose.• Developing integrity.
Generational Faith Formation
• Builder Generation (1945 and earlier)• Baby Boom Generation (1946–1964)• Generation X (1965–1979)• Millennial Generation (1980–1999)• Generation 2000 or the iGeneration (2000–)
Millennial Generation
• introduction to technology, literally at birth• constant media diet• adeptness at multitasking• fervor for communication technologies• love of virtual social worlds and anything
internet-related• ability to use technology to create a vast array
of “content"
Millennial Generation
• unique learning style• need for constant motivation• closeness to family• confidence• openness to change• need for collective reflection• desire for immediacy
Millennial Generation
• Can we have that yesterday?• Our attention spans are shot.• We still haven't grown up.• We remember what it was like 'before'• We're all going to be famous. Briefly.
Millennial Generation
• We have multiple personalities.• After we die, we live on, online.• We care less about cars.• This will be on our permanent records.• We are expert multi-taskers.
YOUTH & YOUNG ADULT WORSHIP
Youth Worship
The "Coming of Age" worship experience helps late adolescents/emerging adults to:• learn more about Unitarian Universalism• have ways to articulate their own beliefs• A core CoA worship feature are the statements
of personal belief (credo statements)
Youth Worship
"Coming of Age" worship service participants:• experience worship that ministers to their
spiritual and social needs• develop skills and confidence in planning and
leading worship• grow in their capacity to take on
responsibilities in a group
Young Adult Worship
Myths About Worship For Young Adults• It is not a “dumbed-down” version of
traditional Sunday morning worship. • The message is just presented in a different
way• A way that keeps people’s attention and
brings them to a deeper place
Young Adult Worship
• Another common misconception is that the phrase “spiritually vital and alive” means that somehow we must abandon all hope of a message that is rational.
• Spirituality and reason can go hand in hand, and young adults do not ask for a religion that does not make sense to them based in their own experience.
Young Adult Worship
Emerging adults want worship• that speaks to their experiences in life• that challenges them to develop deeper
relationships• that connects them to things that are beyond
themselves—in human relationships, struggles for justice, or a connection with nature or God or any other profound mystery.
The Sermon Sandwich
A Contemporary Worship Platter